Blog

Kelly Alton, NES Financial General Counsel, Says the Right Time to do a 1031 Exchange is Now

In a recent article published in the New England Real Estate Journal, Kelly Alton, NES Financial General Counsel, explores the “right” time to conduct a 1031 exchange and the necessity of following all of the rules.

Kelly Alton, who helped develop significant 1031 guidance during her tenure at the IRS National Office in Washington, D.C., is a well-known expert on the subject. She says that with the larger selection of properties now available for sale, now is the perfect time for a seller to do an exchange so they can have more choices of property to buy from.

The article also talks about the recent U.S. District Court case, Allen v. U.S. (N.D. Cal. 2014), where Mr. Allen, who owned a parcel of undeveloped real estate for 12 years but was not an investor, was not able to conduct a 1031 exchange on this property because it did not end up qualifying. The important message from this case for anyone who is thinking about reaping the tax benefits of a 1031 exchange is to make sure they are well versed on what qualifies certain property for the exchange.